Mike Bloomberg on War & Peace

Mayor of New York City (Independent)

1960s: No burning passion to go war, but it was expected

During the 2004 campaign, the Daily News looked into Bloomberg's claim that he had tried to volunteer for military service in Vietnam.

In his memoir Bloomberg wrote that [during the 1960s] he was "trying to do the right things--serve my country--
while also trying to maintain a measure of control over my life." His campaign literature rang with the same patriotic theme.
Years later, he sounded more practical than patriotic, like millions of others who tried to get through the Vietnam era in one piece, their reputations also intact.

"I don't know that anybody wanted to serve, that I wanted to serve," the mayor told
me. "I thought I had to and I was gonna go do it. Did I have a burning passion to go to war like some of these young kids do? No. But it was just what you were gonna do."

Nobody wants war to continue, but what happens next?

Nobody wants the war in Iraq to continue, but how are you going to pull out, and what happens next? You’ve got to be able to say, 'If pulling out of Iraq causes this, this is what I would do.' 'If staying in Iraq causes that, this is what I would do.'